Mr. Slatkin hadn't just noted in passing that he was scuffling to get up to speed with an opera he had never conducted before; he was seized with a fit of electronic logorrhea, endlessly chit-chattering online in a way guaranteed to prejudice the critics, the performers and the audience against him.

Was this the MSM, craven as ever, slavishly following the lead of the artistocracy - those who decide which frauds and daubs, which slabs of self-obsessed upper-middle-class logorrhea - constitute Art and Literature?